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AWS Senior Practice Manager Aaron Burciaga: How To Build Responsible AI & Resilience
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AWS Senior Practice Manager Aaron Burciaga: How To Build Responsible AI & Resilience

Aaron Burciaga, senior practice manager with Amazon Web Services (AWS), recently released the third part in his series on How To Build Responsible AI for Forbes.

In the latest entry, Burciaga focused on resilience and the importance of and provided a guide on how federal contractors need to understand the risks involved, plan their responses and utilize forecast value added (FVA) metrics to create “effects tuning.”

“Artificial intelligence is now an integral component of the processes and systems that drive our organizations,” said Burciaga. “As AI practitioners, we must be intentional about developing, deploying and managing responsible AI — minimizing risk and removing bias while working toward our objectives.”

In addition, he provided a breakdown of resilience and how AI practitioners must adapt to situations and recover quickly as well as engineer conditions to explore the full solution space and account for the effects of local constraints

“Risk and resilience planning is nothing new — we’re simply modernizing it to fit the AI world,” Burciaga added. “At the end of the day, the main questions you need to ask to build a resilient AI system are: Do you understand the risk? Do you have a response plan for the risk? How are you tuning your plan over time to adjust for effects, anticipated or not? Be wise.”

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State Department Appoints Rina Amiri, Stephenie Foster as Senior Officials; Secretary Antony Blinken Quoted
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State Department Appoints Rina Amiri, Stephenie Foster as Senior Officials; Secretary Antony Blinken Quoted

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a 2021 Wash100 Award winner, announced on Wednesday that the State Department has appointed Stephenie Foster and Rina Amiri as senior offices to support the civil rights of Afghan women and girls.

“We desire a peaceful, stable, and secure Afghanistan, where all Afghans can live and thrive in political, economic, and social inclusivity. Special Envoy Amiri will work closely with me toward that goal,” said Secretary Blinken. 

Blinken appointed Rina Amiri as special envoy for Afghan women and human rights. Amiri will report directly to Blinken. She served during the Obama administration as senior adviser to the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and also served as a member of the United Nations’ Special Representative of the Secretary General’s political team in Afghanistan.

Stephenie Foster was also appointed the State Department’s new senior advisor for women and girls issues. She will lead the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) committee. Her focus will be centered on relocating Afghans that were evacuated from the country. 

“Stephenie’s diverse public and private sector experiences, including at the Department, and her passion for advancing women and girls’ safety and equality will help advance CARE’s around-the-clock relocation and resettlement efforts on behalf of our Afghan allies and their families,” Blinken said in a statement.

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Congressional Members Have Proposed 35 Crypto Policy-Related Bills
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Congressional Members Have Proposed 35 Crypto Policy-Related Bills

Lawmakers have proposed 35 bills focused on blockchain and cryptocurrency policy in Congress in 2021, Forbes reported Monday.

Congressional members put forward three types of legislation that centered on the regulation of cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currency and applications of blockchain technology.

One of those measures is a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill with cryptocurrency tax provisions. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in November will direct cryptocurrency exchanges to notify the Internal Revenue Service of crypto transactions through the 1099-B form.

Another bill to pass the House in 2021 was the Eliminate Barriers To Innovation Act, which is currently in the Senate Banking Committee. The legislation would establish a Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Working Group on Digital Assets that would shed light on differences in blockchain tokens between the two agencies.

Lawmakers also introduced two bills to address the use of cryptocurrency in ransomware and cyberattacks like the Colonial Pipeline hack and those are the Ransom Disclosure Act proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and the Sanctions and Stop Ransomware Act of 2021 introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Reps. French Hill, R-Ark., and Bill Foster, D-Ill., co-sponsored the Central Bank Digital Currency Study Act of 2021, which would require the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System to carry out a study on CBDCs based on a Bank for International Settlements survey.

POC - Digital Currency and National Security Forum

The Potomac Officers Club will hold its Digital Currency and National Security Forum on Jan. 27. Sign up for the virtual event to hear from government and industry leaders as they talk about the implications, risks, opportunities and challenges that digital currencies pose to the future of the U.S. economy and national security.

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CISA Warns of Cyberthreats Facing Critical Manufacturing Sector
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CISA Warns of Cyberthreats Facing Critical Manufacturing Sector

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has warned that the critical manufacturing sector faces the risk of cyberattacks during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Hill reported Wednesday.

An insights report from CISA has listed three potential operational vulnerabilities in industrial control systems and these are expanded cyberattack surfaces, unauthorized access in online and physical platforms and reduced network segmentation and securitization.

According to the report, the shift to robotic process automation to address pandemic-related disruption can introduce new security risks and the lack of cyber professionals can impact organizations’ ability to fight and respond to cyberthreats.

“If current trends hold, attacks against manufacturing sector infrastructure will continue to increase,” the report states.

CISA said organizations should take a multifaceted, long-term approach to mitigating cyber risks. Cybersecurity teams within companies, for instance, should invest in training initiatives to enable security analysts to remotely monitor manufacturing environments.

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Fort Myer to Repair George Washington Parkway Under $161M Design-Build Contract
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Fort Myer to Repair George Washington Parkway Under $161M Design-Build Contract

Fort Myer Construction Corp. has won a $161 million contract for the first major repair of the 25-mile George Washington Parkway in Northern Virginia in nearly six decades, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Under the National Park Services contract, Fort Myer will design changes to 7.6 miles of road on the northern part of the parkway before a two-year construction work starting in 2025.

Planned changes to the busy route include new asphalt, rebuilt traffic safety features, improved storm drainage, redesigned interchange and enhanced entrance and exit lanes.

According to Park Services officials, the contract will help extend the parkway’s lifespan and improve the driving experience for commuters using the affected roads.

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Marine Corps Relying on New Robot for Remote Underwater Explosive Disposal
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Marine Corps Relying on New Robot for Remote Underwater Explosive Disposal

The U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command has been deploying since September a new box-shaped robot that enables the remote identification and neutralization of underwater explosives in depths of up to 1,000 feet, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.

The Strategic Robotic Systems Fusion-designed robot is the first of the service branch’s Littoral Explosive Ordnance Neutralization Family of Systems that are aimed at supporting the Marines’ underwater operations.

Master Sgt. Matthew Jackson from the 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company shared that the system features high-definition video capabilities, an articulator arm, sound navigation technologies and sonar sensors that would allow Marines to detonate threats from a safe distance.

Jackson noted that training for robot operations would require only around four days, shorter than the seven-week courses for in-person threat neutralization missions.

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DOE National Labs to Support State Grid Resilience Efforts; Kelly Speakes-Backman Quoted
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DOE National Labs to Support State Grid Resilience Efforts; Kelly Speakes-Backman Quoted

The Department of Energy‘s national laboratories will provide technical assistance to help states develop technologies and inform decisions that boost grid resiliency, reliability and decarbonization.

The Lawrence Berkeley, Pacific Northwest, Renewable Energy, Argonne and Oak Ridge national laboratories will support 21 public utility commissions on projects that encompass energy resilience, grid planning, distributed energy integration and environmental justice, DOE said Tuesday.

These one-to-two year projects will receive support from DOE’s Grid Modernization Initiative, which manages research and development in national pursuit of grid resiliency, security and reliability. DOE’s offices for fossil energy, nuclear energy, energy efficiency, cybersecurity and electricity collaborate on the initiative.

“Rapid technological advancements and clean energy goals present changes to the status quo—but also great opportunities for consumers,” said Kelly Speakes-Backman, principal deputy assistant secretary for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The national laboratories will support public utility commissions in the following states:

  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Hawaii
  • Iowa
  • Indiana
  • Kentucky
  • Massachusetts
  • Maryland
  • Maine
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Missouri
  • North Carolina
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • Oregon
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • Utah
  • Washington
  • Wisconsin
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USSOUTHCOM Eyes Expanded Space Partnerships in Americas; Andrew Croft Quoted
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USSOUTHCOM Eyes Expanded Space Partnerships in Americas; Andrew Croft Quoted

A top U.S. Southern Command official has revealed plans for a new southern space component aimed at improving the organization’s relationship with partner countries in the Americas, Air Force Magazine reported Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Andrew Croft, USSOUTHCOM military deputy commander, told the publication that the upcoming component will work with U.S. Space Command and U.S. Space Force to contribute space domain awareness information to protect resources and prevent crime in the region.

According to Croft, plans include the expansion of the organization’s Air Forces Southern group in Arizona to a small team at the Miami combatant command headquarters that would include initial personnel of fewer than 10 planners and trainers.

“I think it’ll grow slowly over time as we do more space operations here in the AOR,” the general explained.

The planned expansion into the Americas is part of a U.S. strategy to compete with Russian and Chinese influence in the region, where the two adversary countries have already installed space facilities.

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USACE-Organized Workshop Tackles Data-Powered Analytics, AI Tools for Cyber-Energy Security
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USACE-Organized Workshop Tackles Data-Powered Analytics, AI Tools for Cyber-Energy Security

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Society for Risk Analysis recently gathered analytics experts to discuss the use of data in defending the country’s cyber-energy networks against threats.

Participants of the one-day workshop focused on a new military-led project aimed at integrating evidence-based data with advanced resilience analytics and artificial intelligence tools to produce decision-making recommendations for cyber-energy security, USACE said Tuesday.

The new project, led by USACE and executed by various Army research teams, will address challenges involved in such an integration such as the development of interpretable and equitable machine learning models and the topological resilience of networked infrastructure.

“Leveraging artificial intelligence to advance energy resiliency and security is a critical component of achieving the USACE Research and Development Strategy’s goals to Improve Community Resiliency and Ensure Secure and Reliable Installation Energy,” explained Andrew Nelson, a director within the Army’s Engineer Research and Development Center.

Alex Beehler, former assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, pointed out in a keynote speech that the service branch must first put meters across the military infrastructure to collect data for analytics and AI to work.

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Former Defense Digital Service Member Daniel Bardenstein Joins CISA to Support Cyber Division
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Former Defense Digital Service Member Daniel Bardenstein Joins CISA to Support Cyber Division

Daniel Bardenstein, formerly part of the Defense Digital Service (DDS), has joined the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to support government-wide security, according to a tweet he posted on Dec. 20th.

He will work on cyber and technology strategy to support the technical director of CISA’s cybersecurity division, FedScoop reported Tuesday. Bardenstein supported cybersecurity product management during his time at DDS.

The newly appointed CISA member formerly led cybersecurity activities under Operation Warp Speed, the government’s effort to accelerate the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

His professional career also includes managerial work for private sector companies including Palantir Technologies and Exabeam.

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